Life and work

Perlotti was born into a family of Italian immigrant

Italian Argentine

An Italian Argentine is a person born in Argentina of Italian ancestry. It is estimated up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent...

 workers. His father, a shoe cobbler, died in 1899, and young Luis Perlotti was compelled to find work. He was employed at the Rigolleau glass factory, and later at a cabinet maker, where he developed skills in polishing and shaping. He began his studies as a craftsman and sculptor at the Unione e Benevolenza mutual aid society, and was later accepted into the National Academy of Fine Arts, where he was trained by painters Pío Collivadino

Pío Collivadino

Pío Collivadino was an Argentine painter of the post-impressionist school.-Life and work:Pío Collivadino was born in Buenos Aires, in 1869...

, Pablo Ripamonti, and by sculptor Lucio Correa Morales. He soon received commissions to create busts and memorials for the National Military College, and in 1914, exhibited for the first time at the National Salon.

He became acquainted with other Argentine artists, including painter Benito Quinquela Martín

Benito Quinquela Martín

Benito Quinquela Martín , 1890 – January 28, 1977) was an Argentine painter born in La Boca, Buenos Aires. Quinquela Martín is considered the port painter-par-excellence and one of the most popular Argentine painters...

, poet Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni was one of the most important Latin-American poets of the modernist period.-Life:Storni was born in Sala Capriasca, Switzerland to an Argentine beer industrialist living in Switzerland for a few years. There, Storni learned to speak Italian...

, and others, who would gather at the Café Tortoni

Café Tortoni

The Café Tortoni is a coffeehouse located at #825 of Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Inaugurated on 1858 by a French immigrant whose surname was Touan, it was named Tortoni after the local in Paris at Boulevard des Italiens where the elite of the Parissiense culture gathered in the 19th...

. The archaeological findings of Eduardo Holmberg and Juan Bautista Ambrosetti

Juan Bautista Ambrosetti

Juan Bautista Ambrosetti was an Argentine archaeologist, ethnographer and naturalist who helped pioneer anthropology in his country.-Life and work:...

, as well as the regionalist

Regionalism (literature)

In literature, regionalism or local color refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and topography – of a particular region...

 fiction of Ricardo Rojas

Ricardo Rojas (writer)

Ricardo Rojas was an Argentine journalist and writer. He came from one of the most influential families of the Santiago del Estero Province; his father was Absalón Rojas, who was governor of the province...

, would influence Perlotti to incorporate indigenous motifs in which developing style, and a tour of the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 in 1925 would further influence his work in subsequent years.

He would be commissioned to create large-scale works for both public display and for private clients, notably the Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...

 monument to his friend, the poet Alfonsina Storni, which would be placed in 1942 opposite the place where she had committed suicide; Perlotti engraved her 1925 poem, Pain, upon the memorial. Other notable works would include the Monument to Bartolomé Mitre

Bartolomé Mitre

Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...

, in the city of Corrientes

Corrientes

Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12...

; the monument to Los Libres del Sur, in the city of Chascomús

Chascomús

Chascomús, is the principal city in Chascomús Partido in eastern Buenos Aires Province in eastern Argentina, located south of the capital Buenos Aires. As of 2001, the city had a population of 30,670 people.-History:...

; Return to the Fatherland, in Tunuyán

Tunuyán

Tunuyán is a city in the west of the province of Mendoza, Argentina, located on the western shore of the Tunuyán River, south from the provincial capital Mendoza and east of the Chilean border. It has 42,125 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the Tunuyán Department...

, Mendoza

Mendoza Province

The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...

; The Dance of the Arrow, in Paraná, Entre Ríos

Paraná, Entre Ríos

Paraná is the capital city of the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fe, capital of the neighbouring Santa Fe Province...

 (which had earned a gold medal in the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929

Ibero-American Exposition of 1929

The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 was a world's fair held in Seville, Spain, from the 9th of May 1929 until the 21st of June 1930. Countries in attendance of the exposition included: Portugal, The United States, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Republic of Colombia, Cuba,...

, in Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

); the monument to the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

, Los Andes Park, in the Chacarita ward of Buenos Aires; La Piedad, in Chacarita Cemetery; memorials to General Juan Lavalle

Juan Lavalle

Juan Galo de Lavalle was an Argentine military and political figure.-Biography:Lavalle was born in Buenos Aires to María Mercedes González Bordallo and Manuel José de La Vallée y Cortés, general accountant of rents and tobacco for the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.In 1799, the family moved to...

 and boxer Luis Firpo

Luis Firpo

Luis Ángel Firpo, , was an Argentine boxer. Born in Junín, Argentina, he was nicknamed "The Wild Bull of The Pampas."...

, in La Recoleta Cemetery

La Recoleta Cemetery

La Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.- History :...

; a monument to motherhood, in Rivadavia Square; relief

Relief

Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...

 in homage to Lady Liberty

Marianne

Marianne is a national emblem of France and an allegory of Liberty and Reason. She represents the state and values of France, differently from another French cultural symbol, the "Coq Gaulois" which represents France as a nation and its history, land, culture, and variety of sport disciplines in...

 on the base of the Plaza Arenales flag pole; a monument to José de San Martín

José de San Martín

José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...

, located in the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Argentina

The Supreme Court of Argentina is the highest court of law of the Argentine Republic. It was inaugurated on 15 January 1863. However, during much of the 20th century, the Court and, in general, the Argentine judicial system, has lacked autonomy from the executive power...

; and the Martín Fierro Award, among numerous other works.

Perlotti donated his house and workshop in the Caballito

Caballito, Buenos Aires

Caballito is a barrio of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is the only barrio in the administrative division Comuna 6....

 ward of Buenos Aires in 1969 for its use as a museum. Vacationing in Punta del Este

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a resort town on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. It is located on the intersection of Route 10 with Route 39, directly southeast of the department capital Maldonado and about east of Montevideo...

, Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, in January 1969, the noted sculptor died in an automobile accident. The Luis Perlotti Museum became the municipal museum of sculpture of Buenos Aires, and was reopened in 2008 following a four-year refurbishment and expansion.